1857-S LIBERTY HEAD GOLD HALF EAGLE, NGC AU55, SMALL S

Description

1857-S Liberty Head Gold Half Eagle, Small S
NGC graded AU55
NGC/PCGS graded population 279 including resubmissions (PCGS suggests an extant population of 135)
Mintage 87,000
Surprisingly neither NGC nor PCGS identify the mint mark size difference, though the size is strikingly different.
I have found three different varieties for this San Francisco date readily identified by the position and size of the mint mark on the reverse.
The first variety is the large mint mark variety (as seen in the earlier 1855-S and 1856-S half eagles). The mint mark is almost as large as the legend S's in STATES and located over the left side of the vertical bar in the E in FIVE. The date on this variety is left of center and high with the 1 nearer the truncation than the dentils and the 7 touching the truncation. The date is also seen with the 1 57 double punched. (Ref. PCGS s/n 34510960 MS65)
The second variety is the small mint mark (roughly a third smaller than the large mint mark) variety with the mint mark equidistant from the talon and arrow feather. The mint mark is fully impressed and located over the inside edge of the V left serif. The date is more centrally located with the 1 equidistant between the truncation and dentils and the 7 touching the truncation. (Ref. PCGS s/n 35198065 MS66).
The third variety is the small mint mark variety with the mint mark below the lowest arrow feather tip further from the talon than the previous variety. The mint mark is weakly impressed and located between the two serifs in the V in FIVE.
The date is the same as the second variety centrally located with the 1 equidistant between the truncation and dentils and the 7 touching the truncation. (Ref. PCGS s/n 36035010 AU55 and the coin shown above).
Walter Breen's "Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins" suggests that the small mint mark variety (his 6633) is scarcer than the large mint mark (his 6632) but not by much (40,000 small mint mark versus 48,000 for the large mint mark).
Per Garrett and Guth's "Encyclopedia Of U.S. Gold Coins - 1795-1933", The finest example in the Smithsonian Collection is an AU55 large mint mark.
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